Martin H. Pritikin

Martin Pritikin has extensive experience in both the practice of litigation and in teaching others how to litigate. In 2000, Martin joined a large national commercial litigation firm, where he worked on a wide variety of matters.

Within his first few months, Martin participated in a five-week federal trial involving one of the nation’s largest aerospace firms. A year later, he obtained a defense victory in a million dollar contract dispute in a federal court trial.

Among his cases, Martin successfully defended a nonsuit on appeal that was granted after opening statement in favor of his client, a major television network; and an idea theft case in which the jury awarded the plaintiff tens of millions of dollars against the remaining defendants.

Martin obtained a favorable settlement on behalf of a bank in a nationwide federal class action. In a wrongful-termination case against a leading audio component manufacturer, opposing counsel withdrew from the case—and the plaintiff abandoned his claims—after Martin obtained damaging admissions during plaintiff’s deposition. In a habeas corpus victory, Martin helped two Native American brothers avoid sentences of life without the possibility of parole under Alabama’s three-strikes law. Martin obtained a multi-million dollar verdict in a consumer class action.

He helped a bank obtain a complete defense verdict in a case in which plaintiffs were demanding $7 million for alleged fraud, breach of contract and related claims. He co-authored a petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in a case regarding the current reach of the Confrontation Clause.

In 2004, Martin entered academia. Beginning as a visiting professor at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, he was subsequently promoted to Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor, and was recently granted tenure. In 2008, he was appointed as director of the law school’s Institute of Trial and Appellate Practice. He brings his litigation experience to bear in teaching Evidence, Criminal Law, and his self designed Advanced Litigation Seminar, among other courses. He has published articles in the Harvard Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the Colorado Law Review, the Cardozo Law Journal, the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal and the Nebraska Law Review.

Martin’s involvement in oral advocacy began at Harvard Law School, where, in addition to serving as a member of the Harvard Law Review, he was the regional champion in the ATLA Student Trial Advocacy Competition and a semi-finalist in Harvard’s prestigious Ames Moot Court Competition. Martin graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1997 with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2000.